CSX Stock Falls After Ackman Says He Won't Discuss It at Ira Sohn

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of CSX Corp. (CSX) were falling 2.4% to $36.56 on heavy trading volume Monday after hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he wouldn't discuss the railroad company at his presentation at the Ira Sohn conference in New York City.

Ackman is expected to be the last speaker at the investing conference, according to MarketWatch. The hedge fund manager was expected to pitch consolidation in the railroad industry before announcing he wouldn't discuss the company during his presentation, according to the news site.

Shares of CSX previously rallied Friday as investors speculated that Ackman would discuss the company.

About 17 million shares of CSX were traded by 3:21 p.m. Monday, above the railroad company's average trading volume of about 9.1 million shares a day.

TheStreet Ratings team rates CSX CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate CSX CORP (CSX) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, revenue growth and expanding profit margins. Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 27.88% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, CSX should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.

CSX CORP has improved earnings per share by 12.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, CSX CORP increased its bottom line by earning $1.93 versus $1.83 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.06 versus $1.93).

The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly outperformed against the S&P 500 and exceeded that of the Road & Rail industry average. The net income increased by 11.1% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $398.00 million to $442.00 million.

Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 1.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 0.5%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.

37.59% is the gross profit margin for CSX CORP which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 14.60% trails the industry average.